2024 Author: Gavin MacAdam | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:38
Cassabanana (Latin Sicana odorifera) Is a liana plant belonging to the Pumpkin family. This culture is often called fragrant pumpkin or fragrant shikana.
Description
Cassabanana is a fast-growing herbaceous and rather pretty perennial vine that can grow up to fifteen meters in length. This plant needs a fairly strong support, since its mass is very large. In addition, aggressiveness is characteristic of cassabanana: if you give it absolute freedom, a spectacular liana can simply entangle the entire support tree and strangle it without much difficulty.
And this culture blooms (depending on the variety) with either yellow or white flowers. At the same time, the size of female flowers can reach five centimeters, and the size of male flowers is two centimeters.
The cassabanana fruit boasts a surprisingly pleasant and sweet melon aroma that is so strong it can be easily smelled from afar. They can have either a cylindrical or elliptical or slightly curved shape, while their thickness often reaches seven to twelve centimeters, and a length of thirty to sixty centimeters. Each fruit is covered with a fairly hard, glossy shell.
The color of unripe fruits can be as varied as you like: orange-red, and burgundy, and dark purple, and even black, and after they finally ripen, they acquire a rich yellow or orange-yellow color. The juicy flesh of cassabanana is slightly harsh, while the edible part is only about two centimeters thick. In addition, there is a small cavity inside each fruit, generously filled with a fleshy and very loose mass, as well as very densely packed seeds.
Where grows
Kassabanana is a guest from faraway South America. It is actively cultivated in Ecuador, as well as in Peru and Brazil. And not so long ago, evidence was discovered that cassabanana was cultivated as early as the pre-Columbian era.
Application
The fruits of cassabanans boast a very solid content of B vitamins and provitamin A (in other words, carotene). They also contain a lot of phosphorus and calcium. Cassabanana can be eaten fresh or used to make jams, jams or preserves. And unsweetened unripe fruits are widely used in soups, side dishes and salads, where they act as an incredibly nutritious vegetable.
The strong enough aroma of cassabanana allows locals to use it instead of an air flavoring agent. In addition, it can also be used to flavor linen - for this, cut vegetables are placed in a wardrobe or in a linen closet. It is also generally accepted that the smell of cassabanana is endowed with the ability to scare away moths.
In the South American and Central American states, to relieve a sore throat, locals drink water in which small slices of pulp have been soaked (for minor fermentation) overnight.
An infusion of cassabanana seeds, as well as a decoction of its flowers or leaves, is used as a stimulant for menstruation, as well as an effective anthelmintic, laxative and antipyretic agent. The main thing is not to make infusions and decoctions too saturated, since the above parts of the plant include hydrocyanic acid, which is a fairly strong poison. And cassabanan leaves are also used to treat uterine bleeding and a wide variety of sexually transmitted diseases.
Contraindications
At present, no contraindications to the use of cassabanana have been identified, but nevertheless, the likelihood of individual intolerance cannot be completely ruled out.
